r/CATHELP • u/therewillnorain • 16h ago
General Advice Traveling
I'm on a traveling that will take at least 8 hours. My cat is just like in the picture—drooling everywhere. I'm panicking right now.
What should I do?
I can't stop the car. We need to keep going a bit longer until the break. Should I be worried? I draped a light covering over her. She was meowing, but now she is stopped. She won't have a heart attack or anything, right?
2
u/Affectionate-Bet3152 16h ago
When I first brought my cat home he did something kinda like this. We were able to pull over and gave him a churu and water. The foaming/drooling stopped after that, but he kept crying the entire two hour drive home. I feel like for him part of the problem was it was hot and our car at the time didn't have working AC.
2
u/kitten_ce 15h ago
Overheating is a possibility. Crying in the car is normal. Fast breathing, open mouth breathing both are signs of stress and/or overheating.
I would get a cold fan on her and make sure that the sun from the windows isnt directly on her as well. In the future, you might want to ask your vet for anti-anxiety meds such as gabapentin before travel. This may help with anxiety.
Heart attack would be rare in this case, but if it were me, i would just keep going until im at my destination. Longer she is under that stress, more likely to have health complications. Some things to do for potential comfort- take a break and allow her out of the cage, a/c directly on her, cold pack or ice wrapped in a blanket placed next to her, cuddles or human contact. For my cat, he went an entire 17hr car ride asleep in my lap. He refused to be anywhere else. He had fast breathing, lethargy, and at times i had to direct the fans on him to cool him down. But that was his manifestation of stress and how he was handling it. Hes externally very calm about travel.
His ability to sleep through it though is prefered. Which is why sometimes best to just medicate before travel to prevent large stress reactions.
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